Renasant reports ‘strong finish to great year’

TUPELO – Renasant Corp. wrapped up its merger with First M&F Corp. in September, which helped power the company’s results in the fourth quarter.

In fact, Renasant Chairman and CEO Robin McGraw said, “we experienced a strong finish to a great year.”

With the merger, Renasant became the state’s fourth-largest bank.

Renasant earned $11.3 million, or 36 cents a share, in the final three months of the year, a nearly 55 percent increase over the same period a year earlier.

For the year, Renasant posted net income of $33.5 million, nearly 26 percent more than the $26.6 million reported for 2012.

Earnings equated to $1.22 per share for the year, up from $1.06 a year earlier.

The results include merger expenses totaling $4.4 million, or 16 cents a share.

Renasant also reported a 38 percent increase in total loans, to $3.88 billion. Even without the M&F results included, loans grew 12.2 percent.

Deposits were $4.84 billion at the end of the year, while total assets grew from $4.18 billion to $5.74 billion.

Renasant was helped by a hike in net interest income in the fourth quarter, to $50.7 million, compared to $34 million for the fourth quarter in 2012. Net interest margin – the percentage difference between the interest a bank earns from loans and investments and the interest it pays to depositors – was 4.16 percent in the quarter, compared to 3.97 percent a year ago.

Renasant’s noninterest income – which comes primarily from mortgage, insurance and wealth management – increased $18.3 million in the fourth quarter.

The company’s value of nonperforming loans for the year was $76.5 million, with $57.4 million absorbed due to the merger.

Renasant’s provision for loan losses was cut in half, to $2 million in the fourth quarter. Charge-offs totaled $584,000, compared to $3.7 million a year earlier.

After completing the conversion of M&F Bank in December, Renasant added more than 70,000 “deposit relationships” and 27 additional banking location. Nine locations were closed to remove overlap.